Can't access external fat32 drive.

I have an external hard drive in a USB enclosure. The drive was formatted as
FAT32 under 98SE. I used it for storing files after getting a new drive and
switching to XP on the main drive in my computer. I recently got a new PC
with Vista installed. I was able to access the usb drive twice with no
problem. This morning when I tried to open the drive in explorer I got a
message telling me the drive needed to be formatted before I could use it.
What gives? I noticed that the automatic defragmenting service had run on the
drive overnight since I did not know it was scheduled to do so. Would this
have corrupted the drive making it unreadable under Vista? I backed up all of
my important files top this drive from my old PC and was transferring them to
the new one as I got time. Now I can't get to anything on this drive. Help!

"Ken H." <Ken H.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:DEBCB5CA-27FA-4B27-811D-AB40DAE6A81C@microsoft.com...
>I have an external hard drive in a USB enclosure. The drive was
>formatted as
> FAT32 under 98SE. I used it for storing files after getting a new
> drive and
> switching to XP on the main drive in my computer. I recently got a new
> PC
> with Vista installed. I was able to access the usb drive twice with no
> problem. This morning when I tried to open the drive in explorer I got
> a
> message telling me the drive needed to be formatted before I could use
> it.
> What gives? I noticed that the automatic defragmenting service had run
> on the
> drive overnight since I did not know it was scheduled to do so. Would
> this
> have corrupted the drive making it unreadable under Vista? I backed up
> all of
> my important files top this drive from my old PC and was transferring
> them to
> the new one as I got time. Now I can't get to anything on this drive.
> Help!


AFAIR automatic defrag by default do not run on external drives.

Probably you disconnected that disk without dismounting first and it has
corrupt bootsector now. You can rebuild bootsector from scratch or
restore it from spare copy with Testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/ .
Here are examples: http://www.cgsecurity.org/phpwiki/index.php/examples
..
--
Michal Kawecki [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
Warsaw, PL

Thanks a million for the info! I'll give it a try and repost the results.

"Michal Kawecki" wrote:

> "Ken H." <Ken H.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:DEBCB5CA-27FA-4B27-811D-AB40DAE6A81C@microsoft.com...
> >I have an external hard drive in a USB enclosure. The drive was
> >formatted as
> > FAT32 under 98SE. I used it for storing files after getting a new
> > drive and
> > switching to XP on the main drive in my computer. I recently got a new
> > PC
> > with Vista installed. I was able to access the usb drive twice with no
> > problem. This morning when I tried to open the drive in explorer I got
> > a
> > message telling me the drive needed to be formatted before I could use
> > it.
> > What gives? I noticed that the automatic defragmenting service had run
> > on the
> > drive overnight since I did not know it was scheduled to do so. Would
> > this
> > have corrupted the drive making it unreadable under Vista? I backed up
> > all of
> > my important files top this drive from my old PC and was transferring
> > them to
> > the new one as I got time. Now I can't get to anything on this drive.
> > Help!
>
>
> AFAIR automatic defrag by default do not run on external drives.
>
> Probably you disconnected that disk without dismounting first and it has
> corrupt bootsector now. You can rebuild bootsector from scratch or
> restore it from spare copy with Testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/ .
> Here are examples: http://www.cgsecurity.org/phpwiki/index.php/examples
> ..
> --
> Michal Kawecki [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
> Warsaw, PL
>
>

Well, I tried and still no good. How does one rebuild a boot sector from
scratch?

"Michal Kawecki" wrote:

> "Ken H." <Ken H.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:DEBCB5CA-27FA-4B27-811D-AB40DAE6A81C@microsoft.com...
> >I have an external hard drive in a USB enclosure. The drive was
> >formatted as
> > FAT32 under 98SE. I used it for storing files after getting a new
> > drive and
> > switching to XP on the main drive in my computer. I recently got a new
> > PC
> > with Vista installed. I was able to access the usb drive twice with no
> > problem. This morning when I tried to open the drive in explorer I got
> > a
> > message telling me the drive needed to be formatted before I could use
> > it.
> > What gives? I noticed that the automatic defragmenting service had run
> > on the
> > drive overnight since I did not know it was scheduled to do so. Would
> > this
> > have corrupted the drive making it unreadable under Vista? I backed up
> > all of
> > my important files top this drive from my old PC and was transferring
> > them to
> > the new one as I got time. Now I can't get to anything on this drive.
> > Help!
>
>
> AFAIR automatic defrag by default do not run on external drives.
>
> Probably you disconnected that disk without dismounting first and it has
> corrupt bootsector now. You can rebuild bootsector from scratch or
> restore it from spare copy with Testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/ .
> Here are examples: http://www.cgsecurity.org/phpwiki/index.php/examples
> ..
> --
> Michal Kawecki [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
> Warsaw, PL
>
>

Maybe you have a bigger problem with this partition than only corrupt
bootsector. Try some data recovery software - I can suggest a free PC
Inspector File Recovery http://www.convar.de .

Bootsector rebuild procedure (Rebuild BS command):
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Examp...AT_boot_sector
--
M. [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
/before private reply change px with pl in my e-mail address/


"Ken H." <KenH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:06FB8BE4-90C7-424D-9806-EAB93372678F@microsoft.com...
> Well, I tried and still no good. How does one rebuild a boot sector
> from
> scratch?
>
> "Michal Kawecki" wrote:
>
>> "Ken H." <Ken H.@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:DEBCB5CA-27FA-4B27-811D-AB40DAE6A81C@microsoft.com...
>> >I have an external hard drive in a USB enclosure. The drive was
>> >formatted as
>> > FAT32 under 98SE. I used it for storing files after getting a new
>> > drive and
>> > switching to XP on the main drive in my computer. I recently got a
>> > new
>> > PC
>> > with Vista installed. I was able to access the usb drive twice with
>> > no
>> > problem. This morning when I tried to open the drive in explorer I
>> > got
>> > a
>> > message telling me the drive needed to be formatted before I could
>> > use
>> > it.
>> > What gives? I noticed that the automatic defragmenting service had
>> > run
>> > on the
>> > drive overnight since I did not know it was scheduled to do so.
>> > Would
>> > this
>> > have corrupted the drive making it unreadable under Vista? I backed
>> > up
>> > all of
>> > my important files top this drive from my old PC and was
>> > transferring
>> > them to
>> > the new one as I got time. Now I can't get to anything on this
>> > drive.
>> > Help!
>>
>>
>> AFAIR automatic defrag by default do not run on external drives.
>>
>> Probably you disconnected that disk without dismounting first and it
>> has
>> corrupt bootsector now. You can rebuild bootsector from scratch or
>> restore it from spare copy with Testdisk http://www.cgsecurity.org/ .
>> Here are examples:
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/phpwiki/index.php/examples
>> ..
>> --
>> Michal Kawecki [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
>> Warsaw, PL
>>
>>